Devices, methods, and graphical user interfaces for performing actions related to selected messages in a message in-box and for transferring calls

ABSTRACT

Telephonic computing devices having touch screen displays with new and improved methods and user interfaces for performing actions related to selected messages in a message in-box and for transferring calls, thereby increasing the effectiveness, efficiency, and user satisfaction with such devices. Such methods, devices, and interfaces may complement or replace existing methods, devices, and interfaces for performing actions related to selected messages in a message in-box and for transferring calls.

PRIORITY CLAIM

This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No.61/730,014, filed Nov. 26, 2012, the entire contents of which is herebyincorporated by reference as if fully set forth herein, under 35 U.S.C.§119(e).

TECHNICAL FIELD

The disclosed embodiments relate generally to telephonic computingdevices with touch screen displays, and more particularly, to telephoniccomputing devices with touch screen displays that receive input forcommanding various telephony application functions.

BACKGROUND

The use of touch screen displays as input devices for telephoniccomputing devices has increased significantly in recent years. Exemplarytelephonic computing devices with touch screen displays include handheldtablet computing devices with cellular and/or wireless networkcapabilities and Internet Protocol (IP) desktop phones with touch screendisplays. Such displays are used to manipulate user interface objects oftelephony applications on the displays.

Exemplary manipulations include selecting a message in a message in-boxand selecting a call transfer icon. A user may need to perform these andother manipulations on user interface objects in any telephonyapplication where input is needed.

But existing methods for using such touch screen displays to performcertain telephony application functions are cumbersome and inefficient.For example, performing an action related to a selected message in amessage in-box is tedious and creates a cognitive burden on a user. Inaddition, some conventional methods take longer than necessary tocomplete a task, thereby wasting the user's time and device's powerreserve, which can be particularly important consideration forbattery-operated devices.

SUMMARY OF SOME EMBODIMENTS

Accordingly, there is a need for telephonic computing devices withimproved techniques and interfaces for performing actions related toselected messages in a message in-box and for transferring calls. Suchtechniques and interfaces may complement or replace conventionaltechniques and interfaces for performing actions related to selectedmessages in a message in-box and for transferring calls. Such techniquesand interfaces reduce the cognitive burden on a user and produce a moreefficient human-machine interface. For battery-operated devices,techniques and interfaces conserve power and increase the time betweenbattery charges.

The above deficiencies and other problems associated with userinterfaces for telephonic computing devices with touch screen displaysare reduced or eliminated by the disclosed devices. In some embodiments,the telephonic computing device is a portable tablet computing devicewith cellular and/or wireless networking capabilities. In someembodiments, the telephonic computing device is a desktop InternetProtocol (IP) phone (also known as an “IP phone” or “VoIP phone”) with atouch screen display. In some embodiments, the device has a graphicaluser interface (GUI), one or more processors, memory and one or moremodules, programs, of sets of instructions stored in the memory forperforming multiple telephony functions. In some embodiments, the userinteracts with the GUI primarily though finger contacts and gestures onthe touch screen display. In some embodiments, the telephony functionsinclude answering incoming calls, viewing messages in a message in-box,transferring an active call, managing a contact list, and/or viewing theavailability and/or status of a callee. Exemplary systems, methods, andcomputer program products for viewing messaging in a message in-box aredescribed in related U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/958,181,“Universal Call Management Platform,” filed Dec. 1, 2010, the entirecontents of which is hereby incorporated by reference. Exemplarysystems, methods, and computer program products for viewing theavailability and/or status of a callee are described in related U.S.patent application Ser. No. 13/442,488, “Cross-Platform Presence,” filedApr. 9, 2012, the entire contents of which is hereby incorporated byreference.

In some embodiments, a first method for performing an action related toa selected message in a message in-box is performed at a telephoniccomputing device with a touch screen display. The first method includesdisplaying a message panel having a plurality of message sub-panels onthe touch screen display. Each sub-panel corresponds to one message in amessage in-box of a user. The type of messages that may be representedby a message sub-panel include, but are not limited to, an incomingphone call message, an outgoing phone call message, an incoming textmessage, an outgoing text message, a voicemail message, an incoming faxmessage, and an outgoing fax message.

In some embodiments of the first method, first touch input on the touchscreen display is detected. The first input selects a particular one ofthe plurality of message sub-panels. In response to detecting the firsttouch input, one or more selectable action regions are displayed on theparticular message sub-panel. Prior to or in response to detecting thefirst touch input, a phone number associated with the message correspondto the particular message sub-panel is determined and the one or moreselectable action regions to display on the particular message sub-panelare determined based, at least in part, on the determined phone number.

In some embodiments of the first method, each of the one or moreselectable action regions displayed on the particular message sub-panelcorresponds to a message action. The message actions include, but arenot limited to, placing a phone call to the phone number associated withmessage corresponding to the particular message sub-panel, sending atext message to the phone number associated with message correspondingto the particular message sub-panel, viewing a contact list entry keyedby the phone number associated with message corresponding to theparticular message sub-panel, adding a contact list entry keyed by thephone number associated with message corresponding to the particularmessage sub-panel, playing a voicemail message left by a caller from thephone number associated with message corresponding to the particularmessage sub-panel, and deleting the message corresponding to theparticular message sub-panel from a message in-box in which the messageis stored.

In some embodiments of the first method, second touch input on the touchscreen display that selects a particular one of the one or moreselectable action regions displayed on the particular message sub-panelis detected. In response to detecting the second touch input, themessage action corresponding to the selected selectable action region iscaused to occur.

In some embodiments, a second method for transferring a call isperformed at a telephonic computing device with a touch screen display.The second method includes detecting first touch input on the touchscreen display that selects an option to transfer an active call. Inresponse to detecting the first touch input, a presence panel having aplurality of presence sub-panels is displayed on the touch screendisplay. Each presence sub-panel of the plurality of presence sub-panelsrepresents one corresponding user being monitored. Each presencesub-panel of the plurality of presence sub-panels includes a visualindicator for the corresponding user being monitored. The visualindicator indicates at least one of a current availability or currentstatus of the corresponding user being monitored. In some embodiments,the presence panel and sub-panels comprise of a list of contacts (e.g.,all contacts, company contacts, personal contacts, favorites, frequentlycontacted, recently contacted, or specific contacts selected forpresence monitoring) with corresponding availability or statusinformation for each contact.

In some embodiments, the second method includes detecting second touchinput on the touch screen display that selects a particular one of theplurality of presence sub-panels. In some embodiments, in response todetecting the second touch input, the second method includes initiatinga cold or warm transfer of the active call to a phone number associatedwith the user being monitored corresponding to the particular presencesub-panel. In some embodiments, in response to detecting the secondtouch input, the second method includes allowing a user to select withtouch input the option to initiate either a warm or cold transfer of theactive call to a phone number associated with the user being monitoredcorresponding to the particular presence sub-panel.

Thus, telephonic computing devices with touch screen displays areprovided with new and improved methods and user interfaces forperforming actions related to selected messages in a message in-box andfor transferring calls, thereby increasing the effectiveness,efficiency, and user satisfaction with such devices. Such methods,devices, and interfaces may complement or replace existing methods,devices, and interfaces for performing actions related to selectedmessages in a message in-box and for transferring calls.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

For a better understanding of the aforementioned embodiments of theinvention as well as additional embodiments thereof, reference should bemade to the Description of Embodiments below, in conjunction with thefollowing drawings in which like reference numerals refer tocorresponding parts throughout the figures.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a telephonic computing device with a touchscreen display, according to some embodiments of the invention.

FIG. 2 illustrates a telephonic computing device having a touch screendisplay in accordance with some embodiments.

FIGS. 3A-3B illustrate exemplary user interfaces for performing actionsrelated to selected messages in a message in-box on a telephoniccomputing device in accordance with some embodiments.

FIGS. 4A-4E illustrate exemplary user interfaces for transferring anactive call in accordance with some embodiments.

FIG. 5 illustrates an exemplary user interface in accordance with someembodiments.

DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS

Introduction

The following description, for the purposes of explanation, numerousspecific details are set forth in order to provide a thoroughunderstanding of the present invention. It will be apparent, however,that the present invention may be practiced without these specificdetails. In other instances, well-known structures and devices are shownin block diagram form in order to avoid unnecessarily obscuring thepresent invention.

It will be understood that, although the terms first, second, etc. maybe used herein to describe various elements, these elements should notbe limited by these terms. These terms are only used to distinguish oneelement from another. For example, a first element could be termed asecond element, and, similarly, a second element could be termed a firstelement, without departing from the scope of the present invention.

The terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particularembodiments only and is not intended to be limiting of the invention. Asused herein, the singular forms “a”, “an”, and “the” are intended toinclude the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly indicatesotherwise. Use of “criteria” may indicate either or both of the singularusage of the term, “criterion”, or the plural form “criteria”, or viceversa.

It will also be understood that the term “and/or” as used herein refersto and encompasses any and all possible combinations of one or more ofthe associated listed items. It will be further understood that theterms “comprises” and/or “comprising”, when used herein, specify thepresence of stated features, integers, steps, operations, elements,components and/or groups, but do not preclude the presence or additionof one or more other features, integers, steps, operations, elements,components, and/or groups thereof.

As used herein, the term “if” may be construed to mean “when” or “upon”or “in response to determining” or “in response to detecting,” dependingon the context. Similarly, the phrase “if it is determined” or “if [astated condition or event] is detected” may be construed to mean “upondetermining” or “in response to determining” or “upon detecting [thestated condition or event” or “in response to detecting [the statedcondition or event],” depending on the context.

Exemplary Telephonic Computing Device

Techniques described herein for performing actions related to selectedmessages in a message in-box and for transferring calls may be embodiedin a telephonic computing device. In some embodiments, the device is aportable computing device with telephony capabilities such as a tabletcomputer with telephony capabilities or smart phone device that may alsocontain other functions, such as PDA and/or music player functions.Exemplary embodiments of portable computing devices with telephonycapabilities include, without limitation, the iPhone® and iPad® devicesfrom Apple, Inc. of Cupertino, Calif. In some embodiments, thetelephonic computing device is a stationary device such as a desktopVoIP phone. Exemplary embodiments of stationary devices include, withoutlimitation, the Glass Phone® from CloudTC of Palo Alto, Calif.

In the above description of embodiments, a telephonic computing devicethat includes a touch screen display through which user input isprovided is described. It should be understood, however, that thecomputing device may include one or more other physical user interfacedevices, such as a physical keyboard, a mouse and/or a joystick throughwhich user input is provided in addition to or instead of user inputprovided through a touch screen display.

In some embodiments, the device supports one or more software programsthat implement, use, or benefit from the techniques described herein forperforming actions related to selected messages in a message in-box andfor transferring calls. These software programs may include, but are notlimited to, an operating system, a web browsing application, an e-mailapplication, and/or telephony application (also known as a “softphoneapplication”).

The various applications that may be executed on the device may use atleast one common physical user interface device, such as the touchscreen display. One or more functions of the touch screen display aswell as corresponding information displayed on the device may beadjusted and/or varied from one application to the next and/or within arespective application. In this way, a common physical architecture(such as the touch screen display) of the device may support the varietyof applications with user interfaces that are intuitive and transparent.

The user interfaces may include one or more soft or hard keyboardembodiments. Possible hard keyboard embodiments include Bluetoothkeyboards or wired keyboards operatively coupled to the device. The softkeyboard embodiments may include standard (QWERTY) and/or non-standardconfigurations of symbols on the displayed icons of the keyboard. Thesoft keyboard embodiments may include a reduced number of icons (or softkeys) relative to the number of keys in existing physical keyboards,such as that for a typewriter. This may make it easier for users toselect one or more icons in the keyboard, and thus, one or morecorresponding symbols. The keyboard embodiments may be adaptive. Forexample, displayed icons may be modified in accordance with useractions, such as selecting one or more icons and/or one or morecorresponding symbols. One or more applications on the device mayutilize common and/or different keyboard embodiments. Thus, the keyboardembodiment used may be tailored to at least some of the applications. Insome embodiments, one or more keyboard embodiments may be tailored to arespective user. For example, one or more keyboard embodiments may betailored to a respective user based on a word usage history(lexicography, slang, individual usage) of the respective user. Some ofthe keyboard embodiments may be adjusted to reduce a probability of auser error when selecting one or more icons, and thus one or moresymbols, when using the soft keyboard embodiments.

Attention is now directed towards an embodiment of a telephoniccomputing device with a touch screen display. FIG. 1 is a block diagramillustrating a telephonic computing device 100 with a touch screendisplay 112 in accordance with some embodiments. The touch screendisplay 112. The device 100 may include a memory 102 (which may includeone or more non-transitory computer readable mediums), a memorycontroller 122, one or more processing units (CPU's) 120, a peripheralsinterface 118, RF circuitry 108, audio circuitry 110, a speaker 111, amicrophone 113, an input/output (I/O) subsystem 106, other input orcontrol devices 116, and an external port 124. The device 100 mayinclude one or more optical sensors 164. These components maycommunicate over one or more communication buses or signal lines 103.

It should be appreciated that the device 100 is only one example of atelephonic computing device 100, and that the device 100 may have moreor fewer components than shown, may combine two or more components, or amay have a different configuration or arrangement of the components. Thevarious components shown in FIG. 1 may be implemented in hardware,software, or a combination of both hardware and software, including oneor more signal processing and/or application specific integratedcircuits.

Memory 102 may include high-speed random access memory and may alsoinclude non-volatile memory, such as one or more magnetic disk storagedevices, flash memory devices, or other non-volatile solid-state memorydevices. Access to memory 102 by other components of the device 100,such as the CPU 120 and the peripherals interface 118, may be controlledby the memory controller 122.

The peripherals interface 118 couples the input and output peripheralsof the device to the CPU 120 and memory 102. The one or more processors120 run or execute various software programs and/or sets of instructionsstored in memory 102 to perform various functions for the device 100 andto process data.

In some embodiments, the peripherals interface 118, the CPU 120, and thememory controller 122 may be implemented on a single chip, such as achip 104. In some other embodiments, they may be implemented on separatechips.

The RF (radio frequency) circuitry 108 receives and sends RF signals,also called electromagnetic signals. The RF circuitry 108 convertselectrical signals to/from electromagnetic signals and communicates withcommunications networks and other communications devices via theelectromagnetic signals. The RF circuitry 108 may include well-knowncircuitry for performing these functions, including but not limited toan antenna system, an RF transceiver, one or more amplifiers, a tuner,one or more oscillators, a digital signal processor, a CODEC chipset, asubscriber identity module (SIM) card, memory, and so forth. The RFcircuitry 108 may communicate with networks, such as the Internet, alsoreferred to as the World Wide Web (WWW), an intranet and/or a wirelessnetwork, such as a cellular telephone network, a wireless local areanetwork (LAN) and/or a metropolitan area network (MAN), and otherdevices by wireless communication. The wireless communication may useany of a plurality of communications standards, protocols andtechnologies, including but not limited to Global System for MobileCommunications (GSM), Enhanced Data GSM Environment (EDGE), high-speeddownlink packet access (HSDPA), wideband code division multiple access(W-CDMA), code division multiple access (CDMA), time division multipleaccess (TDMA), Bluetooth, Wireless Fidelity (Wi-Fi) (e.g., IEEE 802.11a,IEEE 802.11b, IEEE 802.11g and/or IEEE 802.11n), voice over InternetProtocol (VoIP), Wi-MAX, a protocol for email (e.g., Internet messageaccess protocol (IMAP) and/or post office protocol (POP)), instantmessaging (e.g., extensible messaging and presence protocol (XMPP),Session Initiation Protocol for Instant Messaging and PresenceLeveraging Extensions (SIMPLE), Instant Messaging and Presence Service(IMPS)), and/or Short Message Service (SMS)), or any other suitablecommunication protocol, including communication protocols not yetdeveloped as of the filing date of this document.

The audio circuitry 110, the speaker 111, and the microphone 113 providean audio interface between a user and the device 100. The audiocircuitry 110 receives audio data from the peripherals interface 118,converts the audio data to an electrical signal, and transmits theelectrical signal to the speaker 111. The speaker 111 converts theelectrical signal to human-audible sound waves. The audio circuitry 110also receives electrical signals converted by the microphone 113 fromsound waves. The audio circuitry 110 converts the electrical signal toaudio data and transmits the audio data to the peripherals interface 118for processing. Audio data may be retrieved from and/or transmitted tomemory 102 and/or the RF circuitry 108 by the peripherals interface 118.In some embodiments, the audio circuitry 110 also includes a handsetjack (e.g., 206, FIG. 2). The handset jack provides an interface betweenthe audio circuitry 110 and removable audio input/output peripherals,such as a handset (e.g., with both output (e.g., a speaker 111 for oneear) and input (e.g., a microphone 113).

The I/O subsystem 106 couples input/output peripherals on the device100, such as the touch screen 112 and other input/control devices 116,to the peripherals interface 118. The I/O subsystem 106 may include adisplay controller 156 and one or more input controllers 160 for otherinput or control devices. The one or more input controllers 160receive/send electrical signals from/to other input or control devices116. The other input/control devices 116 may include physical buttons(e.g., push buttons, rocker buttons, etc.), dials, slider switches,joysticks, click wheels, and so forth. In some alternate embodiments,input controller(s) 160 may be coupled to any (or none) of thefollowing: a keyboard, infrared port, USB port, and a pointer devicesuch as a mouse. The one or more buttons (e.g., 208, FIG. 2) may includean up/down button for volume control of the speaker 111 and/or themicrophone 113 or a menu and/or a back button. The one or more buttonsmay include a push button (e.g., 204, FIG. 2). A quick press of the pushbutton may disengage a lock of the touch screen 112 or begin a processthat uses gestures on the touch screen to unlock the device. A longerpress of the push button (e.g., 206) may turn power to the device 100 onor off. The user may be able to customize a functionality of one or moreof the buttons. The touch screen 112 is used to implement virtual orsoft buttons and one or more soft keyboards.

The touch screen 112 provides an input interface and an output interfacebetween the device and a user. The display controller 156 receivesand/or sends electrical signals from/to the touch screen 112. The touchscreen 112 displays visual output to the user. The visual output mayinclude graphics, text, icons, video, and any combination thereof(collectively termed “graphics”). In some embodiments, some or all ofthe visual output may correspond to user interface objects.

A touch screen 112 has a touch-sensitive surface, sensor or set ofsensors that accepts input from the user based on haptic and/or tactilecontact. The touch screen 112 and the display controller 156 (along withany associated modules and/or sets of instructions in memory 102) detectcontact (and any movement or breaking of the contact) on the touchscreen 112 and converts the detected contact into interaction with userinterface objects (e.g., one or more soft keys, icons, web pages orimages) that are displayed on the touch screen. In an exemplaryembodiment, a point of contact between a touch screen 112 and the usercorresponds to a finger of the user.

The touch screen 112 may use LCD (liquid crystal display) technology, orLPD (light emitting polymer display) technology, although other displaytechnologies may be used in other embodiments. The touch screen 112 andthe display controller 156 may detect contact and any movement orbreaking thereof using any of a plurality of touch sensing technologiesnow known or later developed, including but not limited to capacitive,resistive, infrared, and surface acoustic wave technologies, as well asother proximity sensor arrays or other elements for determining one ormore points of contact with a touch screen 112. In an exemplaryembodiment, projected mutual capacitance sensing technology is used,such as that found in the iPhone® and iPad® from Apple Computer, Inc. ofCupertino, Calif. and the Glass Phone from CloudTC of Palo Alto, Calif.

The touch screen 112 may have a resolution in excess of 100 dpi. In anexemplary embodiment, the touch screen has a resolution of approximately160 dpi. The user may make contact with the touch screen 112 using anysuitable object or appendage, such as a stylus, a finger, and so forth.In some embodiments, the user interface is designed to work primarilywith finger-based contacts and gestures, which are much less precisethan stylus-based input due to the larger area of contact of a finger onthe touch screen. In some embodiments, the device translates the roughfinger-based input into a precise pointer/cursor position or command forperforming the actions desired by the user.

In some embodiments, in addition to the touch screen, the device 100 mayinclude a touchpad (not shown) for activating or deactivating particularfunctions. In some embodiments, the touchpad is a touch-sensitive areaof the device that, unlike the touch screen, does not display visualoutput. The touchpad may be a touch-sensitive surface that is separatefrom the touch screen 112 or an extension of the touch-sensitive surfaceformed by the touch screen.

In some embodiments, the device 100 may include a physical or virtualclick wheel as an input control device 116. A user may navigate amongand interact with one or more graphical objects (e.g., icons) displayedin the touch screen 112 by rotating the click wheel or by moving a pointof contact with the click wheel (e.g., where the amount of movement ofthe point of contact is measured by its angular displacement withrespect to a center point of the click wheel). The click wheel may alsobe used to select one or more of the displayed icons. For example, theuser may press down on at least a portion of the click wheel or anassociated button. User commands and navigation commands provided by theuser via the click wheel may be processed by an input controller 160 aswell as one or more of the modules and/or sets of instructions in memory102. For a virtual click wheel, the click wheel and click wheelcontroller may be part of the touch screen 112 and the displaycontroller 156, respectively. For a virtual click wheel, the click wheelmay be either an opaque or semitransparent object that appears anddisappears on the touch screen display in response to user interactionwith the device. In some embodiments, a virtual click wheel is displayedon the touch screen of a telephonic computing device and operated byuser contact with the touch screen.

The device 100 also includes a power system 162 for powering the variouscomponents. The power system 162 may include a power management system,one or more power sources (e.g., battery, alternating current (AC)), arecharging system, a power failure detection circuit, a power converteror inverter, a power status indicator (e.g., a light-emitting diode(LED)) and any other components associated with the generation,management and distribution of power in portable devices.

The device 100 may also include one or more optical sensors 164. FIG. 1shows an optical sensor coupled to an optical sensor controller 158 inI/O subsystem 106. The optical sensor 164 may include charge-coupleddevice (CCD) or complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS)phototransistors. The optical sensor 164 receives light from theenvironment, projected through one or more lens, and converts the lightto data representing an image. In conjunction with an imaging modulesoftware component (also called a camera module) stored in the memory102, the optical sensor 164 may capture still images or video. In someembodiments, an optical sensor is located on the back of the device 100,opposite the touch screen display 112 on the front of the device, sothat the touch screen display may be used as a viewfinder for stilland/or video image acquisition. In some embodiments, an optical sensoris located on the front of the device so that the user's image may beobtained for videoconferencing while the user views the other videoconference participants on the touch screen display. In someembodiments, the position of the optical sensor 164 can be changed bythe user (e.g., by rotating the lens and the sensor in the devicehousing) so that a single optical sensor 164 may be used along with thetouch screen display for both video conferencing and still and/or videoimage acquisition.

In some embodiments, the software components stored in memory 102 mayinclude an operating system 126, a communication module (or set ofinstructions) 127, a contact/motion module (or set of instructions) 128,a graphics module (or set of instructions) 129, a text input module (orset of instructions) 130, a telephony (softphone) application 131 (orset of instructions), and other applications (or sets of instructions)134.

The operating system 126 (e.g., ANDROID, IOS, LINUX, UNIX, OS X,WINDOWS, or an embedded operating system such as VxWorks) includesvarious software components and/or drivers for controlling and managinggeneral system tasks (e.g., memory management, storage device control,power management, etc.) and facilitates communication between varioushardware and software components.

The communication module 127 facilitates communication with otherdevices over one or more external ports 124 and also includes varioussoftware components for handling data received by the RF circuitry 108and/or the external port(s) 124. The external port(s) 124 (e.g.,Universal Serial Bus (USB), RJ-45 Ethernet, FIREWIRE, etc.) is adaptedfor coupling directly to other devices or indirectly over a network(e.g., the Internet, wireless LAN, etc.).

The contact/motion module 128 may detect contact with the touch screen112 (in conjunction with the display controller 156) and other touchsensitive devices (e.g., a touchpad or physical click wheel). Thecontact/motion module 128 includes various software components forperforming various operations related to detection of contact, such asdetermining if contact has occurred (e.g., detecting a finger-downevent), determining if there is movement of the contact and tracking themovement across the touch-sensitive surface (e.g., detecting one or morefinger-dragging events), and determining if the contact has ceased(e.g., detecting a finger-up event or a break in contact). Thecontact/motion module 128 receives contact data from the touch-sensitivesurface. Determining movement of the point of contact, which isrepresented by a series of contact data, may include determining speed(magnitude), velocity (magnitude and direction), and/or an acceleration(a change in magnitude and/or direction) of the point of contact. Theseoperations may be applied to single contacts (e.g., one finger contacts)or to multiple simultaneous contacts (e.g., “multitouch”/multiple fingercontacts). In some embodiments, the contact/motion module 128 and thedisplay controller 156 detects contact on a touchpad. In someembodiments, the contact/motion module 128 and the controller 160detects contact on a click wheel.

The contact/motion module 128 may detect a gesture input by a user.Different gestures on the touch-sensitive surface have different contactpatterns. Thus, a gesture may be detected by detecting a particularcontact pattern. For example, detecting a finger tap gesture comprisesdetecting a finger-down event followed by detecting a finger-up event atthe same position (or substantially the same position) as thefinger-down event (e.g., at the position of an icon). As anotherexample, detecting a finger swipe gesture on the touch-sensitive surfacecomprises detecting a finger-down event followed by detecting one ormore finger-dragging events, and subsequently followed by detecting afinger-up event.

The graphics module 129 includes various known software components forrendering and displaying graphics on the touch screen 112 or otherdisplay, including components for changing the intensity of graphicsthat are displayed. As used herein, the term “graphics” includes anyobject that can be displayed to a user, including without limitationtext, web pages, icons (such as user interface objects including softkeys), digital images, videos, animations and the like.

In some embodiments, the graphics module 129 stores data representinggraphics to be used. Each graphic may be assigned a corresponding code.The graphics module 129 receives, from applications etc., one or morecodes specifying graphics to be displayed along with, if necessary,coordinate data and other graphic property data, and then generatesscreen image data to output to display controller 156.

The text input module 130, which may be a component of graphics module130, provides soft keyboards for entering text in various softwareapplications stored in memory 102 (e.g., contacts, e-mail, IM, browser,and any other application that needs text input).

The telephony (softphone) module 131 includes executable instructionsfor making phone calls, answering phone calls, conducting voiceconversations or video conferences, receiving faxes, managing contacts,viewing messages in a message in-box, performing actions related tomessages selected in the message in-box, viewing current activity and/orstatus information about a callee, transferring active phone calls, andother telephony functions. The telephony (softphone) modules 131 may useany of a plurality of standards, protocols, and technologies to carryout telephony and supporting functions including, without limitation,the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) networking protocol; G.711 u-lawand A-law, G.729A/B, and G.722 G.711 PLC voice codecs; G.168-2002compliant full-duplex echo cancellation; Voice Activity Detection (VAD),Comfort Noise Generation (CNG), and Packet Loss and Concealment (PCL)call quality enhancement; DTMF TIA 464B and user defined tones;Real-Time Transport Protocol (RTP)/Real-Time Control Protocol (RTCP);the HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP) or the Secure HyperText TransferProtocol (HTTPS) for sending and receiving supporting application data;or any other suitable standard, protocol, or technology includingstandards, protocols, and technologies not yet developed as of thefiling date of this document.

Other applications 132 may include the following modules (or sets ofinstructions), or a subset or superset thereof:

an e-mail client module;

a web browser module;

a word processing module;

a spreadsheet module; and

a text messaging module.

Examples of other applications 132 that may be stored in memory 102include other word processing applications, other image editingapplications, drawing applications, presentation applications,JAVA-enabled applications, encryption, digital rights management, voicerecognition, and voice replication.

Each of the above identified modules and applications correspond to aset of executable instructions for performing one or more functionsdescribed above and the methods described in this application (e.g., thecomputer-implemented methods and other information processing methodsdescribed herein). These modules (i.e., sets of instructions) need notbe implemented as separate software programs, procedures or modules, andthus various subsets of these modules may be combined or otherwisere-arranged in various embodiments. For example, some or the entiretelephony module 131 may be part of the operating system 126. In someembodiments, memory 102 may store a subset of the modules and datastructures identified above. Furthermore, memory 102 may storeadditional modules and data structures not described above.

In some embodiments, the device 100 is a device where operation of apredefined set of functions on the device is performed exclusivelythrough a touch screen 112. By using a touch screen as the primaryinput/control device for operation of the device 100, the number ofphysical input/control devices (such as push buttons, dials, and thelike) on the device 100 may be reduced.

FIG. 2 illustrates a telephonic computing device 100 having a touchscreen 112 in accordance with some embodiments. The touch screen maydisplay one or more graphics within user interface (UI) 200. In thisembodiment, as well as others described below, a user may select one ormore of the graphics by making contact or touching the graphics, forexample, with one or more fingers 202 (not drawn to scale in the figure)or one or more styluses 203 (not shown). In some embodiments, selectionof one or more graphics occurs when the user breaks contact with one ormore graphics. In some embodiments, the contact may include a gesture,such as one or more taps, one or more swipes (from left to right, fromright to left, upward and/or downward), and/or a rolling of a finger(from left to right, from right to left, upward and/or downward) thathas made contact with device 100. In some embodiments, inadvertentcontact with a graphic may not select the graphic. For example, a swipegesture that sweeps of an application icon may not select thecorresponding application icon when the gesture corresponding toselection is a tap.

The device 100 may also include one or more physical buttons, such as“home” or menu button 204. As described previously, the menu button 204may be used to navigate to any application 131 or 132 in a set ofapplications that may be executed on the device 100. Alternatively, insome embodiments, the menu button is implemented as a soft key in a GUIin touch screen 112.

Attention is now directed towards exemplary embodiments of userinterfaces (“UI”) and associated processes that may be implemented ontelephonic computing device 100.

Performing Actions Related to a Selected Message in a Message In-Box

FIGS. 3A-3B illustrate exemplary user interfaces for performing actionsrelated to a selected message in a message in-box of a user.

In FIGS. 3A-3B, some finger contact movement sizes may be exaggeratedfor illustrative purposes. No depiction in the figures bearing on fingercontact movements should be taken as a requirement or limitation for thepurpose of understanding sizes and scale associated with the methods anddevices disclosed herein.

UI 300A (FIG. 3A) is an exemplary user interface for a telephonyapplication (e.g., telephony application 131) displayed on the touchscreen 112 of device 100. In this example, the user interface 300Aincludes a message in-box panel 301 labeled “Recent Activity” and another user availability and status monitoring panel 302 labeled“Presence”. The message in-box panel 301 represents messages in amessage in-box for a particular user (e.g., John Smith in this example).The messages in the message in-box may be stored on the device 100and/or on one or more servers to which the device 100 is operativelycoupled directly or indirectly (i.e., through one or more intermediatenetwork devices) by one or more data networks. The presence panel 302represents other users that the particular user is monitoring theavailability and status of. The presence panel 302 is discussed ingreater detail below with respect to transferring active calls.

In some embodiments, a soft keypad panel may be displayed beside theother panels. For example, selecting a contact to initiate acommunication may result in the contact's number being entered into thekeypad. Entering a contact's number into the keypad may result in thedisplay or selection of the contact in the presence panel or anotherpanel that displays contacts (e.g., panel displaying all contacts,company contacts, personal contacts, favorites, frequently contacted, orrecently contacted). The keypad would also allow the user to selectdual-tone multi-frequency signaling (DTMF) while the user is on a call,for example, to select phone menu options. In other embodiments, thekeypad panel may not be displayed on the main screen of the device butmay be displayed in response to a user selection. An exemplary userinterface 500 showing a dialer keypad 501 beside a contacts panel 502that may be displayed on the touch screen display 112 of device 100 isshown in FIG. 5.

The message in-box panel 301 includes a number of message sub-panels303. In some embodiments, a message sub-panel 303 corresponds to anincoming call message (e.g., sub-panel 303A), a voicemail message (e.g.,sub-panel 303B), an incoming text message (e.g., sub-panel 303C), anincoming fax message (e.g., sub-panel 303D), or an outgoing call (e.g.,sub-panel 303E). In some embodiments, a message sub-panel 303 may alsocorrespond to an outgoing text message and an outgoing fax message.

In some embodiments, the message sub-panels 303 are sorted by timesassociated with the messages represented by the message sub-panels 303.For example, in UI 300A, the message sub-panels 303 are presented on themessage in-box panel 302 from top to bottom in ascending order of timedifferences between times associated with the messages and a currenttime. In some embodiments, the times associated with the messagescorrespond to times when activities associated with the messagesoccurred. The activities associated with the messages may vary dependingon the type of message. As one example, the time associated with anincoming call message may be a time at which the incoming call wasmissed, a time at which the incoming call was answered (pick up), or atime at which the incoming call was disconnected (hung up). As anotherexample, the time associated with an outgoing call message may be a timeat which the outgoing call was initiated (placed) or a time at which atthe outgoing call was disconnected (hung up). As another example, thetime associated with a voicemail message may be a time at which thevoicemail was recorded. As another example, the time associated with anincoming text message may be a time at which the text message was sentor received. As another example, the time associated with outgoing textmessage may be a time at which the text message was sent. As anotherexample, the time associated with an incoming fax message may be a timeat which the fax message was received. As another example, the timeassociated with an outgoing fax message may be a time at which the faxmessage was sent.

In some embodiments, a message sub-panel 303 represents multiplemessages associated with the same phone number where each of themultiple messages are associated with a recent time relative to acurrent time. As an example, message sub-panel 303C represents five textmessages associated with recent times sent from the same phone numberassociated with a John Carey. As another example, message sub-panel 303Frepresents three calls associated with recent times made from the samephone number to Dianne Currie. The recent time may be based on apredetermined threshold. For example, a message is considered recent ifit is associated with a time within the past seven days. In someembodiments, the threshold for determining whether a message is recentenough is user configurable (e.g., via a settings or options menu).

In some embodiments, the message panel 302 has one currently selectedsub-panel 303. In the example UI 300A, the currently selected sub-panelis sub-panel 303A. In some embodiments, the currently selected sub-panelis visually indicated. For example, in the example UI 300A, currentlyselected sub-panel 303A has a highlighted background. The highlightedbackground visually distinguishes the currently selected sub-panel 303Afrom the other displayed sub-panels 303B-303E that not currentlyselected.

In some embodiments, the currently selected message sub-panel containsone or more selectable action regions corresponding to message actionsfor the message represented by the currently selected message sub-panel.In the example UI 300A, currently selected sub-panel 303A containsselectable action regions 304A-D. Although in UI 300A, a selectableaction region 304 is visually represented on the touch-screen display112 as a button, a selectable action region is visually representedotherwise in other embodiments. For example, a selectable action regionmay be represented with an icon or graphic that represents the messageaction.

In some embodiments, the available message actions that can be invokedthrough corresponding selectable action regions presented on thecurrently selected message sub-panel depend on a phone number associatedwith the message represented by the currently selected messagesub-panel. For example, in UI 300A, display of the selectable actionregion 304C corresponding to a view contact message action is dependentupon a phone number for Jane Doe associated with the message representedby sub-panel 303A being on a contact list. The contact list may bestored in memory of the device 100 and/or memory of one or more serversto which the device is operatively coupled directly or indirectly by oneor more data networks. The selectable action region 304C, if activatedby touch gesture (e.g., a tap gesture), causes display on the touchscreen 112 of contact list information for the phone number of Jane Doeassociated with the message represented by sub-panel 303A.Alternatively, if the contact list did not contain an entry for thephone number associated with the message represented by sub-panel 303A,then instead of displaying selectable action region 304C representing aview contact message action, a selectable action region 304 representingan add contact message action may be displayed.

Table 1 lists exemplary message actions in the left-most column. In themiddle column, for each message action, a list of one or more messagetypes for which the message action is applicable is specified. In theright-most column, a possible selectable action region that may bedisplayed on a message sub-panel representing a message of a messagetype specified in the middle column is described.

TABLE 1 Exemplary message actions, message types, and selectable actionregions. Message Message Selectable Action Type Action Region Placing aphone call to the Incoming call Display a “Call” phone number associatedwith Outgoing call selectable message corresponding to the Voicemailmessage action region. selected message sub-panel. Incoming text MessageOutgoing text message. Send a text message to the Incoming call Displaya phone number associated with Outgoing call “Send Text” messagecorresponding to the Voicemail message selectable selected messagesub-panel. Incoming text action region. Message Outgoing text messageView a contact list entry Incoming call Display a keyed by the phonenumber Outgoing call “View Contact” associated with message Voicemailmessage selectable action corresponding to the selected Incoming textregion if a contact message sub-panel. Message list entry Outgoing textfor the phone message number is in Incoming fax the contact list.Message Outgoing Fax Message Add a contact list entry keyed Incomingcall Display an by the phone number Outgoing call “Add Contact”associated with message Voicemail message selectable corresponding tothe particular Incoming text action region message sub-panel. Message ifa contact list Outgoing text entry for the phone message number is notin Incoming fax the contact list. message Outgoing fax message Play avoicemail message left Voicemail Display a by a caller from the phonemessage “voicemail player” number associated with selectable messagecorresponding to the action region. selected message sub-panel. Deletingthe message Incoming call Display a “Delete” corresponding to theparticular Outgoing call selectable action message sub-panel from aVoicemail region. message in-box in which the message The message in-message is stored. Incoming text box from which the message message isdeleted Outgoing text may be stored in message memory of the deviceIncoming fax 100 and/or memory message of one or more Outgoing faxservers to which the message device100 is operatively coupled by one ormore data networks. In cases where the message is stored at the device100 and on a server, the message may be deleted from one or bothlocations.

The message actions, message types, and selectable action regions inTable 1 are merely exemplary. As mentioned, the set of selectable actionregions that are displayed on a given message sub-panel may depend on aphone number associated with the message represented by the givenmessage sub-panel.

In some embodiments, if a contact list entry keyed by the phone numberexists in a contact list, then a “view contact” selectable action regionis displayed on the message sub-panel (e.g., message sub-panel 303A ofUI 300A (FIG. 3A)).

In some embodiments, if a contact list entry keyed by the phone numberdoes not exist in a contact list, that an “add contact” selectableaction region is displayed on the message sub-panel (e.g., messagesub-panel 303B of UI 300B (FIG. 3B)).

In some embodiments, the order or arrangement of the selectable actionregions as displayed on the given message sub-panel depends on the phonenumber or other contact information. For example, if preferenceinformation associated with the phone number indicates that the userassociated with the phone number prefers to receive phone calls ratherthan text messages, then the “call” selectable action region may bedisplayed ahead of the “send text” selectable action region in a layoutorder of the selectable action regions (e.g., left-to-right,top-to-bottom, right-to-left, or bottom-to-top) on the given messagesub-panel. Additionally or alternatively, the selectable action regioncorresponding to the preferred method of contact may be visuallydistinguished (i.e., highlighted) from selectable action regionscorresponding to less preferred methods of contact. The preferenceinformation may be stored in memory of the device 100 and/or in memoryof one or more servers to which the device 100 is operatively coupled.Additionally or alternatively, if presence information associated withthe phone number indicates that the user associated with the phonenumber is currently on the telephone or otherwise busy, action regionscorresponding to asynchronous communications, such as “send text”, “sendvoicemail”, or “send fax” selectable action regions may be displayedahead of and/or visually distinguished from the “call” selectable actionregion on the given message sub-panel.

In some embodiments, a “call” selectable action region is not displayedon the given message sub-panel based on authorization information thatspecifies that the user is not authorized to place phone calls to thephone number associated with the message represented by the givenmessage sub-panel. In some embodiments, a “send text” selectable actionregion is not displayed on the given message sub-panel based onauthorization information that specifies that the user is not authorizedto send text messages to the phone number associated with the messagerepresented by the given message sub-panel. The authorizationinformation may be stored in memory of the device 100 and/or in memoryof one or more servers to which the device 100 is operatively coupled.

Referring again to the UI 300A of FIG. 3A, it illustrates a touchcontact 305 on the touch screen 112. In this example, the contact 305 isat a location on the touch screen 112 corresponding to the location ofmessage sub-panel 303B.

UI 300B (FIG. 3A) illustrates that, in response to touch contact 305,message sub-panel 303B is now the currently selected message sub-panel.In the example UI 300B, selectable action regions 306A-306F aredisplayed on the message sub-panel 303B. Selectable action region 306Ais a “voicemail “player” selectable action region for playing back thevoicemail message (e.g., audibly outputting the voicemail message from aspeaker of the device 100). Selectable action region 306B is a “call”selectable action region for placing a call to the phone numberassociated with the voicemail message. Selectable action region 306C isa “send text” selectable action region for sending a text message to thephone number associated with the voicemail message. Selectable actionregion 306D is a “forward voicemail message” selectable action regionfor forwarding the voicemail message to another user's message in-box.Display of the selectable action region 306E corresponding to an “addcontact” message action is dependent upon the phone number associatedwith the voicemail message represented by sub-panel 303B not being on acontact list. The contact list may be stored in memory of the device 100and/or memory of one or more servers to which the device is operativelycoupled directly or indirectly by one or more data networks. In someembodiments, the selectable action region 304E, if activated by touchgesture (e.g., a tap gesture), causes display on the touch screen 112 ofa user interface form for adding contact list information for the phonenumber associated with the message represented by sub-panel 303A to thecontact list. Alternatively, if the contact list did contain an entryfor the phone number associated with the message represented bysub-panel 303B, then instead of displaying selectable action region 304Erepresenting an add contact message action, a selectable action region304 representing an view contact message action may be displayed.Selectable action region 306F is a “delete message” selectable actionregion for deleting the voicemail message.

Beneficially, by determining which selectable action regions to displayon a given message sub-panel based on a phone number associated with themessage represented by the message sub-panel, a more intuitive userinterface for performing actions related to selected messages in amessage in-box is provided to the user, thereby increasing theeffectiveness, efficiency, and user satisfaction with such userinterfaces.

Transferring Active Calls with Presence Feature

FIGS. 4A-4E illustrate exemplary user interfaces for transferring anactive call to a transferee in a way in which the transferor is informedabout the current availability and status of the transferee.

In FIGS. 4A-4E, some finger contact movement sizes may be exaggeratedfor illustrative purposes. No depiction in the figures bearing on fingercontact movements should be taken as a requirement or limitation for thepurpose of understanding sizes and scale associated with the methods anddevices disclosed herein.

UI 400A (FIG. 4A) is an exemplary user interface for a telephonyapplication (e.g., telephony application 131) displayed on the touchscreen 112 of device 100. In this example, the user interface 400Aincludes an active call panel 401 labeled “Active Call” and a useravailability and status monitoring panel 402 labeled “Presence”(hereinafter referred to as a “presence panel”). The active call panel401 represents an active phone call from Jane Doe to John Smith. Theactive call panel 401 includes a selectable region 403 for transferringthe active call from the transferor (John Smith in this example) to atransferee.

The presence panel 402 includes a plurality of presence sub-panels 404corresponding to a plurality of users that the transferor has previouslyselected to monitor the availability and status of. Each sub-panel 404has an availability and status indicator 405 that indicates the currentavailability and status of the user named on the corresponding sub-panel404. In some embodiments, the presence panel 402 is internallyscrollable if the list of users being monitoring is large. In otherembodiments, to accommodate a large list of users being monitored,presence sub-panels are arranged in a grid arrangement such as shown inUI 400B of FIG. 4B. When presenting presence sub-panels in a gridarrangement, the presence panel may still be internally scrollable ifthe number of users being monitoring is large.

Techniques for determining the current availability and status ofmonitored users are described in related U.S. patent application Ser.No. 13/442,488, “Cross-Platform Presence,” filed Apr. 9, 2012, theentire contents of which is hereby incorporated by reference. Generally,the techniques involve a service provider monitoring inbound andoutbound network connections for communication devices used by themonitored users to determine devices statuses for the communicationdevices. Current availability and statuses are determined for monitoredusers based on aggregates of the communication device statutes. Thecurrent availability and status of a monitored user may be indicated ona presence sub-panel in a number of different ways. In some embodimentsas exemplified in UI 400A, the current availability and status isindicated with a graphical representation of a light emitting diode(LED). To visually convey different current availabilities and statusesthe LED representation may be different colors, may blink, or mayvisually exhibit a combination of color and blinking. For example, ablinking LED representation may indicate that the correspondingmonitored user is currently on an active call. As another example, greedcolored LED representation may indicate that the monitored user islikely available. As another example, a yellow colored LEDrepresentation may indicate that the monitored user is busy. In additionto or instead of a LED representation, a textual indicator may bedisplayed on a presence sub-panel to indicate the current availabilityand status of the corresponding monitored user. Example textualindicators include, but are not limited to, “one the phone”, “do notdisturb”, “unavailable”, “busy”, “out-of-office”, “away from desk”, “athome”, “mobile”, ‘traveling”, “unavailable”, and “busy”.

The current availability and status of monitored users as indicated onpresence sub-panels can be used by the transferor to determine whetheran active call should be transferred to one of the monitored users. Forexample, in a business setting, if an assistant to a manger considerswhether to transfer an incoming call to the manager, it is useful to theassistant to understand the current availability and status of themanager. A presence sub-panel for the manager with a currentavailability and status indicator can be used by the assistant todetermine whether to transfer the incoming call to the manager withoutrequiring the assistant to call, walk to, or instant message themanager.

Referring again to UI 400A (FIG. 4A), it illustrates a touch contact 406(e.g., a tap gesture) on the touch screen 112. In this example, thecontact 406 is at a location on the touch screen 112 corresponding tothe location of selectable region 403 for transferring the active call.

UI 400C (FIG. 4C) illustrates that, in response to touch input 406 (UI400A), the touch screen display 112 now displays an on-hold panel 407and a transferee selection panel 408. The transferee selection panel 408can display different sub-panels including presence panel 402. Presencepanel 402 shows a plurality of presence sub-panels 409A-409Ecorresponding to a plurality of users being monitored by the transferor.Each presence sub-panel 409 also includes a current availability andstatus indicator 410 indicating the current availability and status ofthe corresponding monitored user as described above. In addition, eachpresence sub-panel 409 is selectable by touch input directed to alocation on the touch screen 112 corresponding the location of thepresence sub-panel 409 on the touch screen. For example, UI 400C (FIG.4C) illustrates a touch contact 411 (e.g., a tap gesture) on the touchscreen 112. In this example, the contact 411 is at a location on thetouch screen 112 corresponding to the location of selectable presencesub-panel 409A for selecting the monitored user “Albert Moss” atextension “102” as the transferee.

UI 400D (FIG. 4D) illustrates that, in response to touch input 411,presence sub-panel 409A becomes the currently selected presencesub-panel and provides a selectable option 412A to make a warm transferto the transferee at extension “102” and a selectable option 412B tomake a cold transfer to the transferee at extension “102”. In anotherembodiment, in response to touch input 411, a warm or cold transfer tothe selected transferee is directly initiated, bypassing the option toselect one or the other kind of transfer. In some embodiments, uponinitiating a warm transfer, the transferor is connected to thetransferee's phone number providing an opportunity for the transferor toexplain the call transfer to the transferee before the call transfer iscompleted and the transferor disconnected. In some embodiments, uponinitiation of a cold transfer, the transferor is immediatelydisconnected.

In the example UI 400D, a touch contact 413 on the touch screen 112 isillustrated. The contact 413 is at a location on the touch screen 112corresponding to the location of the warm transfer option 412A on thetouch screen 112 for performing a warm transfer of the active call.

UI 400E (FIG. 4E) illustrates that, in response to touch input 413, theon-hold panel 407 indicates that the transferor is connected to thetransferee in accordance with the warm transfer operation. Thetransferor can complete the transfer with touch input to selectableoption 414A or cancel the transfer with touch input to selectable option414B. The current availability and status indicator 410A has changedfrom “available” to “busy” reflecting that the transferee's phone atextension “102” is currently connected to the device 100 as part of thewarm transfer operation.

EXTENSIONS AND ALTERNATIVES

In the foregoing specification, embodiments of the invention have beendescribed with reference to numerous specific details that may vary fromimplementation to implementation. The specification and drawings are,accordingly, to be regarded in an illustrative rather than a restrictivesense. The sole and exclusive indicator of the scope of the invention,and what is intended by the applicants to be the scope of the invention,is the literal and equivalent scope of the set of claims that issue fromthis application, in the specific form in which such claims issue,including any subsequent correction.

The invention claimed is:
 1. A computer-implemented method for atelephonic computing device with a display, the method comprising;displaying, on the display, a message panel including a plurality ofmessage sub-panels; wherein each message sub-panel of the plurality ofmessage sub-panels corresponds to a type of message; based at least inpart on the type of message that a first message sub-panel of theplurality of message sub-panels corresponds to, selecting a first set ofa plurality of selectable action regions to display on the first messagesub-panel, wherein the first message sub-panel is associated with aphone number and the first set of selectable action regions reflects amessage action for placing a phone call to the phone number associatedwith the first message sub-panel and a message action for sending a textmessage to the phone number associated with the first message sub-panel;obtaining presence information associated with the phone number;determining an order for the plurality of selectable action regions fordisplay on the first message sub-panel based on the presence informationassociated with the phone number; displaying at least the first set ofselectable action regions on the first message sub-panel in thedetermined order, wherein when the presence information associated withthe phone number indicates that a user associated with the phone numberis busy, then the selectable action region reflecting the message actionfor sending a text is displayed ahead of the selectable action regionreflecting the message action for placing a phone call; receiving aselection of a particular one of the plurality of selectable actionregions displayed on the first message sub-panel; and causing a messageaction corresponding to the selected selectable action region.
 2. Themethod of claim 1, wherein each sub-panel of the plurality of messagesub-panels corresponds to one of the following message types: anincoming phone call, an outgoing phone call, an incoming text message,an outgoing text message, a voicemail message, an incoming fax message,or an outgoing fax message.
 3. The method of claim 1, wherein each ofthe plurality of selectable action regions displayed on the firstmessage sub-panel corresponds to one of the following message actions:placing a phone call to the phone number, sending a text message to thephone number, displaying a contact list entry keyed by the phone number,adding a contact list entry keyed by the phone number, playing avoicemail message left by a caller from the phone number, or deleting amessage or messages corresponding to the first message sub-panel from amessage in-box in which the message or messages are stored.
 4. Themethod of claim 1, wherein at least one of the message sub-panelscorresponds to multiple messages associated with the same phone number.5. The method of claim 1, wherein the first message sub-panelcorresponds to an incoming phone call.
 6. The method of claim 1, whereinthe first message sub-panel corresponds to an outgoing phone call. 7.The method of claim 1, wherein the first message sub-panel correspondsto an incoming text message.
 8. The method of claim 1, wherein the firstmessage sub-panel corresponds to an outgoing text message.
 9. The methodof claim 1, wherein the first message sub-panel corresponds to avoicemail message.
 10. The method of claim 1, wherein the first messagesub-panel corresponds to an incoming fax message.
 11. The method ofclaim 1, wherein the first message sub-panel corresponds to an outgoingfax message.
 12. The method of claim 1, wherein the message actioncorresponding to the selected selectable action region is presenting acontact list entry keyed by the phone number associated with the firstmessage sub-panel.
 13. The method of claim 1, wherein the message actioncorresponding to the selected selectable action region is adding acontact list entry keyed by the phone number associated with the firstmessage sub-panel.
 14. The method of claim 1, wherein the message actioncorresponding to the selected selectable action region is playing avoicemail message left by a caller from the phone number associated withthe first message sub-panel.
 15. The method of claim 1, wherein themessage action corresponding to the selected selectable action region isdeleting a message or messages corresponding to the first messagesub-panel from a message in-box in which the message or messages arestored.
 16. A telephonic computing device, comprising: a display; one ormore processors; one or more non-transitory computer-readable mediastoring instructions which, when executed by the one or more processors,cause performance of a method comprising: displaying, on the display, amessage panel including a plurality of message sub-panels; wherein eachmessage sub-panel of the plurality of message sub-panels corresponds toa type of message; based at least in part on the type of message that afirst message sub-panel of the plurality of message sub-panelscorresponds to, selecting a first set of a plurality of selectableaction regions to display on the first message sub-panel, wherein thefirst message sub-panel is associated with a phone number and the firstset of selectable action regions reflect a message action for placing aphone call to the phone number associated with the first messagesub-panel and a message action for sending a text message to the phonenumber associated with the first message sub-panel; obtaining presenceinformation associated with the phone number; determining an order forthe plurality of selectable action regions for display on the firstmessage sub-panel based on the presence information associated with thephone number; displaying at least the first set of selectable actionregions on the first message sub-panel in the determined order, whereinwhen the presence information associated with the phone number indicatesthat a user associated with the phone number is available, then theselectable action region reflecting the message action for placing aphone call is displayed ahead of the selectable action region reflectingthe message action for sending a text; receiving a selection of aparticular one of the plurality of selectable action regions displayedon the first message sub-panel; and causing a message actioncorresponding to the selected selectable action region.
 17. The deviceof claim 16, wherein each sub-panel of the plurality of messagesub-panels corresponds to one of the following message types: anincoming phone call, an outgoing phone call, an incoming text message,an outgoing text message, a voicemail message, an incoming fax message,or an outgoing fax message.
 18. The device of claim 16, wherein each ofthe plurality of selectable action regions displayed on the firstmessage sub-panel corresponds to one of the following message actions:placing a phone call to the phone number, sending a text message to thephone number, displaying a contact list entry keyed by the phone number,adding a contact list entry keyed by the phone number, playing avoicemail message left by a caller from the phone number, or deleting amessage or messages corresponding to the first message sub-panel from amessage box in which the message or messages are stored.
 19. The deviceof claim 16, wherein at least one of the message sub-panels correspondsto multiple messages associated with the same phone number.
 20. Themethod of claim 1, wherein each message sub-panel of the plurality ofmessage sub-panels corresponds to a different type of message.
 21. Themethod of claim 1, wherein displaying at least the first set ofplurality of selectable action regions on the first message sub-panelcomprises visually distinguishing at least one of the first set ofplurality of selectable action regions based at least in part on thepresence information associated with the phone number.
 22. The method ofclaim 1, further comprising: based at least in part on the type ofmessage that a second message sub-panel of the plurality of messagesub-panels corresponds to, selecting a second set of one or moreselectable action regions to display on the second message sub-panel;displaying at least the second set of one or more selectable actionregions on the second message sub-panel; and wherein the first set ofplurality of selectable action regions is different than the second setof one or more selectable action regions.
 23. The method of claim 1,further comprising: concurrently displaying a) the presence informationand b) at least the first set of plurality of selectable action regionson the first message sub-panel.